Pit Bull Critically Injures Mailman, Owners Refuse to Surrender Animal

[Boston Tea Party]

(7/08/04 - HOUSTON) — A mailman is in critical condition after being mauled by a dog.

It happened at a home in the Heights near 15th and Beall. The family's pit bull was chained up, but somehow the post came out of the ground and the dog went after the mailman. Several people saw the vicious attack.

Eyewitness Barney Allen recalled, "He had a big gash out of his leg. Both arms… He was totally bloody. It probably got him a couple, two or three times. He was trying to throw rocks from over here to get him off of him."

The dog eventually let the man go. He's now hospitalized at Ben Taub. At last check he was in critical condition.

As for the dog, his owner refused to hand him over to animal control. He now has 24 hours to take the dog to a vet for quarantine.

www.ktrk.com


How is this possible??

I fully expect that somebody will drive by and take the law into their own hands.What do y'all think?

 

[KristaTX]

That's awful . Sounds like the poor mailman was just trying to do his job. .

 

[gymnasticsmom68]

I don't care what anybody says, they are hardly just your average sweet loving animal. Every place should have the muzzle law.

 

[legs22]

I don't care for this breed and would not want dd or myself around one. I don't care how sweet and lovey dovey people think they are. It always seems to be a pit bull that you hear about attacking/mauling someone. I've never seen a poodle in headlines like this.

 

[kellib36]

I'm not a mailman, (and I don't play one on TV) but I am required to go into yards when the owners aren't around a lot. Luckily, if we aren't comfortable with a situation, we can refuse until someone is home.

I know a friend of mine isn't allowed to get mail at their home because of their dogs, I wonder if TX has that same rule. I'd like to hear more about this! Enquiring minds and all!!

Kelli

 

[LuvN~Travel]

Let's just say they won't be getting their mail at home until the dog is gotten rid of. They'll have to rent a p.o box for now.
Kim (who became a clerk instead of a carrier)

 

[pumba]

are not mean.....but one pitbull went under a fence purposely to get my grandson a few years back.....bit him on the arm.....thank goodness someone knew where he lived ......otherwise my grandson would of had to get the series of shots in case the dog had rabies......the dog was put down a few months later because he had attacked three other people......and two others besides that did not report it.....cause it wasnt' a bad bite.....

this was a mailman being attacked....what if it had been a child at the dogs level......I shudder to think what would of happened to that little person

 

[RitaZ.]

I don't care what anybody says, they are hardly just your average sweet loving animal.

I agree. I have heard of too many incidents involving these dogs.

In Miami-Dade county, these dogs are banned. Where I live, Broward county, an owner must have at least $100K insurance on a pit bull. People still have them and I'm sure that most owners don't have the required insurance.

The neighbors next door to us have a pit bull and he has attacked 2 other dogs that were being taken out for a walk by their owners in our neighborhood. The owners of the pit bull don't have a proper muzzle or leash for the dog, ignorance/stupidity at its best. One of the neighbors whose dog was attacked had to get an attorney involved to get the owners to pay for the damages/vet bills.

About 1 yr. ago, the owners of the dog finally installed a wooden fence and the neighborhood is finally at peace. Before that, the dog would just hang out in the open backyard and would take off to wander the neighborhood. We couldn't even go outside...

I can't even begin to tell you how many neighbors called Animal Control on this dog. The A.C. officer would show up shortly after calling and the dog was nowhere to be found. Many neighbors talked to the owners (us included) about the dog, they would pretend that it wasn't theirs, wouldn't open the door, claimed to not speak English (that was my favorite), etc. The police even talked to the owners twice, and thankfully the fence finally went up.

 

[poohbears5]

The size and the power of those dogs scare me to death they reallly need to have special guidelines for ownership.

 

[aprilgail2]

here if they pick up a pit bull and its in the pound, if the owner doesn't claim it they will NOT adopt them out, they put them down instead. They said there are to many liability issues with adopting out pit bulls so they have to kill them.

 

[Tuffcookie]

Let me share an experience here...Last Friday I took a vacation day to spend with DGS, age 1. Towards evening I took him in the stroller for a walk. I took both dogs with us. As we were coming home. we were in our backyard when a dog, which appeared to be a pit bull, came running towards us, dragging a rope! The two owners were in fast pursuit. Hunter, my 110 lb. Labrador stepped forward to meet the other dog. I believe Hunter was looking out for DGS, myself, and Dudley, our little Shih Tzu, when he did that. The other dog briefly bumped noses with Hunter and then proceeded to run away from the owners. The owners muttered a "Sorry", and proceeded to chase their dog. These dog owners are new tennants next door. I called their landlord Tuesday just to let them know about the dog, if they didn't know about it already. The owner's wife tried to tell me it was more of a boxer. I don't think so! We have a dangerous dog ordinance in our city which states the animal must be confined in a fenced in area and the owners of such animal must have at least $100,000 insurance out, and a copy of the policy must be on file with the PD. Funny thing, I haven't seen the dog since I called the landlord. I don't know if it's still there, out of sight, or if the landlord told them it had to go. I know there are those who claim pitbulls are gentle if bred and raised right but I don't want to take any chances.

TC

 

[gymnasticsmom68]

I know there are those who claim pitbulls are gentle if bred and raised right but I don't want to take any chances.

You know what's funny about Pit Bulls? All the owners always say that THEIR Pit Bull is so sweet, even AFTER biting a child or another dog, or worse than biting. Those don't sound to me like owners who are beating their dog or training it to be vicious. They just ARE vicious, and the sooner people understand that these dogs are just plain vicious, the better. I've yet to hear one owner of a pit bull that has attacked a child or another dog say that they trained the dog to be that way, they just are that way.

How many stories or rabid insane Golden Retrievers do you hear about? Now I'm sure we've all heard tales about all kinds of dogs, heck my own husband doesn't like Collies because one came after him when he was little, but Collies are hardly known for attacking innocent children, that was a rare case. But we hear stories about Pit bulls every day, there's a reason for that.

 

[browneyes]

his owner refused to hand him over to animal control

I think any dog can be coerced into being aggressive by it's owner. Did the man show any remorse for the postman?

I hope the postman makes a full recovery soon.

 

[lisajl]

I work for a veterinarian. There are some nice pit bulls out there, but they are few and far between.

What gets me is the owners try to tell us it is some other type of dog. We say, "Excuse me, it is a pit bull." They say, "We have papers to prove that is a (fill you your fave dog breed here)".

We just smile and say, "I don't think so!"

We also had someone come in with an unusual looking dog.
It had a beautiful color...one most of us had not seen before.
I asked the owner what the color was and he said, "presa canario". Sorry about the spelling on that.
I told him that was not a color but a breed of dog. He did not believe me until I told him I knew the story of the woman that was killed by the Presa Canario dogs in California.

We have not seen him since.

Lisajl

P.S. for the record, most people at our clinic have wonderful dogs.
We did have someone with a German Shepherd that we had to euth. It had attacked a 5 year old boy. It was not the first time it had attacked someone. About a year earlier it had attacked the owners grandmother, and they did nothing about it.

Sad state of affairs....I would NEVER, under any circumstances. keep a violent animal.

Lisajl

 

[N.Bailey]

I don't know if ALL pit bulls are dangerous or not, but there have been enough incidences where they have attacked that I wouldn't feel comfortable allowing my family to be around one. I know there are some on this board that defend them and I mean no disrespect to them, but where my children are concerned, no dog will be put above their safety. I would raise holy double hockey sticks if someone moved near me with one of those dogs!!

I hope the mailman has a full recovery. What a sad story.

 

[MOMTOMOOTOO]

I swear most (if not all) pit bull owners need to have their heads examined. They have this weird mentality that a pit bull is as gentle as a little schnauzer. Give me a friggin break. They are vicious loathsome animals who are bred for all the wrong reasons and are owned by irresponsible people. We have neighbors up the street that have a german shepard ( the one that is really german the big black kind) and that dog scares me to death, but add in the visiting son and his pit bull, and I am even scared to ride by in a car. What I cannot fathom is the son has a baby who appears to be about 18 mos and is around both dogs all the time. One day I was riding by, and the chained up pit bull was out in the front yard with the baby in a walker, now that is just plain irresponsible.


I really didn't know I felt so strongy about pit bulls

 

[disneyfuntime]

My husband is a mail man he has been bitten twice. Both times required medical attention at least not life threatening. The postal service makes it a requirement after being bitten numerous times the carrier needs to read a booklet on how not to get bitten and he believes further training if necessary.

Too bad it becomes the carrier's fault as far as the postal service is concerned. He has used his spray that he carries many times in fact once a woman yelled at him when he sprayed her dog, she stated "he won't bite you", right ....

 

[LisaSt]

We have very good friends with 2 of these dogs and they are the best dogs I have ever seen very well trained and mild mannered they have 2 young children and the dogs love playing with the ids. Our oldest daughter has played with the one dog of theirs numerous times. If the playing gets to rough the dogs walk away and go lay down. Any dog can be vicious no matter what breed it is it isn't just Rotties pits and dobermans and sheppards etc. Also dogs no matter what breed can sence when you are frightened of them and will react to that I was attacked by a dog when I was younger it was a golden retreiver I have the scar on my ear still to prove it. So does that mean the labs and the such are bad dogs to I don't think so but the people are always on the war path about the other dogs it drives me nuts talk about a stereo type it also helps if the dog is cared for and trained properly no matter what type of dog it is.

 

[gymnasticsmom68]

But that was ONE Golden, of course there are going to exceptions to the rule, any dog can be trained to be vicious. The fact is though that Pits don't HAVE to be trained to be vicious. I'm sure the owners of the Pit who attacked the mailman will say their dog is the 'sweetest thing ever' and the mailman just had to provoke the dog. People, face the facts, Pit Bulls are mean animals, and I can only pray to God that you don't trust those dogs enough to leave them alone in a room with your children.

 

[LisaSt]

Our neighbours have a sheppard that we do not trust at all. The dog is not treated well it was taken in after being abused they are treating the dog very well but the previous owner did not. My mother had a poodle that was just a mean spirited dog so she had it put down so as to not have to deal with anyone getting bitten by it. I stand by what I stated if the dog is treated well and trained well there are generally no problems. My in laws have a boxer that is sweet as pie big suck really and people are afraid of him just because of his size and how he looks. If you are going to own a dog be kind to it and get it trained properly no mater what kind of dog it is. Also yes the kids ours and our friends have played with the pits in the yard alone and never have we had an issue the dogs usually come crying to the door because the kids are being a pain in the butt to them.